Yumemiru
by Nikholas F. Toledo Zu
Summary: [Elf] A taiyoukai dreams, the mirror watches, the wind dances and a ghost child waits for the coming of spring.


AN: I wanted to try my hand at writing a Sess/Kagura fic without Kagura actually being there. It was quite a challenge to write a fic centered on two characters who don't have a lot to say in the series.

-o0o-o0o-o0o-  
_ Yumemiru  
_-o0o-o0o-o0o-

The first snowfall brought the tidings of a harsh winter and the presence of a ghost child, clutching a mirror to her chest, asking for sanctuary. Among her siblings, she alone did not bear the stench of the evil that spawned her. It was enough to tip the scales.

"Your presence on these lands will be tolerated only until the first spring snow."

"Please take this," she bowed her head and held out the mirror to him, "in exchange for your kindness."

"I am rarely kind."

She slid her dead gaze to the scrolls of the four seasons that hung on the wall. "It is as you say."

His jyaki flared and hummed, a subtle warning that was not lost to her.   
Claws scraped against the metal frame; a fall of white silk shrouded the glassy surface.

Kanna closed her dark eyes, a small smile on her pale lips.

-o0o-o0o-

It was not so much as a dream, but a memory that would not be easily laid to rest.

_He knew she was dying even before he crested the top of the hill. The wildflowers she chose for her deathbed were not enough to mask the stench of miasma and blood._

_"I knew it was you" was all he could offer._

_And, somehow, it was enough. The tension eased from her strained features to be replaced by calm resignation. _

_Tensaiga pulsed at his hip. Unable to save the wind-dancer, the sword mourned her passing because its master would not._

_In the end, he watched her die --- a silent witness to the beauty of her indomitable courage, forever burned in his memory. Beauty is truth and truth is beauty: Sesshoumaru decided that the inevitability of her death was his least favorite truth of all.  
_  
He surfaced from the clutches of sleep, his nocturnal eyesight piercing the darkness.

Kanna's mirror winked from the corner table of his room.

-o0o-o0o-

The winter was bone-chilling in its ruthlessness, not unlike the demeanor of the taiyoukai who lorded over the western lands. She found refuge in a small abandoned hut on the outskirts of the palatial court.

Snow fell unabated for weeks on end.

The morning sky outside the window was overcast with dark gray clouds, heavy with the promise of more snow.

Her days consisted of watching the world slow down around her; she wondered where it would leave her when it finally ground to a stop. At night, she fell asleep looking into the fire, divining or dreaming a different life.

_Anywhere but here --- anything but this.   
_  
The first spring snow came and went. The snow stopped falling and the frost began to thaw.

The sakura were in bloom when the monotonous cycle of her so-called existence was finally disrupted by the summons of the taiyoukai for her to appear in his court.

Kanna realized, that even without her, the world would go on turning.

-o0o-o0o-

The barren wilderness fairly glowed under the half-moonlight, stained with blue shadows that lengthened as the moon descended from its zenith. Golden eyes gazed at the winter landscape without seeing. The crystalline dream, once sifted through the sieve of wakefulness, left him with nothing more than bits of ambiguity and hazy impressions.

Her haunting his dreams were few and far in between. Kanna's presence seemed to have educed his nostalgia. The dreams came more frequently, weaving a tapestry of images that haunted him in his waking moments.

Some were disquieting in their subtlety.

_Sometimes, he dreamt of feeling her lashes kiss his striped cheeks, as he tasted death on her still warm lips. He woke up with the bitter taste of cruelty on his tongue.  
_  
Some were abominable in their intensity.

_There were times he hated her for dying. He dreamt of vermilion-stained claws clutching her precious, precious heart. Later, as he licked the sweet metallic taste of blood from his fingers, he wondered if her heart was enough to keep away the cold.  
_  
But what perturbed him the most were the ones that dared him to hope.

_He would like to think that somewhere, in another reality, she lived._

_Reared a human child like it was her own.  
Humored a cantankerous manservant.  
Loved a stoic taiyoukai._

_He would like to think that somewhere, in that other reality, she found the freedom to be happy.  
_  
Once and only once did he allow himself to dream of mourning her passing. Such weakness could only be tolerated in dreams. Regret was a foolish emotion to burden oneself.

Demon lords did not regret –-- Sesshomaru had tried very hard not to.

-o0o-o0o-

They knelt facing each other --- the destroyer of the circle of life and nihility incarnate. Tea was offered but sympathy was withheld.

She found herself once again admiring the scrolls on the walls: each had a haiku to distinguish the season depicted in the painting.

Sesshomaru lifted his hand to catch her attention. He laid his hand on the frame, his golden gaze held Kanna's dead eyes. Light flickered on the surface of the glass --- within the mirror, Kagura died another death.

He gestured at the artifact. "Explain this."

"The mirror responded to Naraku's will, to his desires," she answered truthfully, timidly tracing the edge of the frame. "When he died, it would not work for me, but it kept me alive. It kept my soul safe."

"Why the dreams, then?"

"It found memories of her inside you. It knew her too well, and tried to give you the closest thing to what you wanted."

Her words hung in the air, unchallenged. She found it hard to believe that the taiyoukai stayed his hand to indulge in a handful of memories than could be reinvented nightly.

She wanted to rage, to howl at his ill-timed selfishness, but that was not her way. Instead, she tried to find comfort in the fact that her sister's secret affections were not entirely unrequited."Kagura." The ghost child gazed at the unmistakable stature of her sister that graced all four scrolls. "I would have cried for her, if I knew how."

_Break the mirror and you free me. Break the mirror and you free us both.  
_  
A mischievous wind blew, coaxing the blossoms from the branches to shower the courtyard below.

_Liberate us. Grant me death.  
_  
"And what does the godless one expect after death?" he asked aloud.

She replied quietly, "Peace."

-o0o _Owari_ o0o-


End file.
